


You That Way, We This Way

by Silverweave



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Episode Tag, Episode: s01e01 Everything Changes, Episode: s01e04 Cyberwoman, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Multi, Wordcount: 500-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-26
Updated: 2016-10-26
Packaged: 2018-08-27 04:58:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8388067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silverweave/pseuds/Silverweave
Summary: Some things may be better left unsaid, but that doesn't mean they can be. Or; Jack confronts Ianto regarding his decision to keep a half-Cyberwoman in the basement in the aftermath of her violent rampage.





	

~~~  
  
_... and now I've got to run..._  
  
The tape showing the desperate demise of Suzie Costello had been edited before Jack showed it to them, of course.  
  
As much as Jack appreciated that his team deserved to know the full and bloody truth about what happened to Suzie, knowing that their boss could pull a Wolverine when shot point blank in the head wouldn’t help anyone. But they deserved to see her end, at least, to know how they lost her. Rose had gone and he still didn’t know how or why. He wouldn’t wish that on anyone.  
  
_...How can you do any other job after this?..._  
  
~~~  
  
Ianto remember how Jack had warned them before he showed them the tape. It’s not pretty, he’d said, and he’d been right. It wasn’t. It was hideous. But he could handle it. Odd, that. Ianto had come to redefine hideous in the last year. What a man could stand, could tolerate, when forced to. But nobody had forced him last night. When Lisa tried to- when Dr Tankzaki was kill- even when Jack told him to finish it, even though they both knew Jack was right, there was still the unspoken assurance in his tone, what you can’t finish, I will. We will, as it turned out.  
  
“You’re right,” Jack said finally, after the two of them had taken care of Annie, then Dr. Tanizaki, then last of all Lisa. Ianto looked at Jack numbly, his face swollen with tears and fighting. “We should have helped her.”  
  
Drained and alone, Ianto looked at Lisa, placing a final kiss on her cold hand. “You did help her,” he said quietly. “You did what I couldn’t. All of you.” He looked back at Jack, allowing the feeling of closure, of relief to fill him for the first time. He nodded. “Thank you.”  
  
Ianto held out his hand to his friend, “You’re a good man, Jack,” he said gratefully as the other man returned the gesture. Without another word, Ianto straightened his tie and walked towards the exit, allowing himself only the slimmest moment’s pause to look up at great arc of the cavernous ceiling before turning reaching for the flood door release.  
  
“I lost someone too. In Torchwood One.”  
  
Ianto looked back at Jack, surprised not only by his voice, but by the fact Jack was looking right at him, was deliberately telling him something he was quite certain he’d not told the others. Ianto frowned, wondering momentarily if that was all Jack intended to say, but it wasn’t.  
  
“Her name was Rose. Really lost, I mean; she was just missing at first, but they never found her. They never found too many people, but Rose, she was so full of life..." Jack smiled in spite of himself at the memory of his friend, before the emptiness of loss claimed him. "…I thought she was indestructible."  
  
"We’ll never know for sure what happened. Where they went. But we can guess.” Jack's voice cracked involuntarily and he looked down, just for a fraction for a second. When he looked up again, the resolve and the anger had returned and shone out deliberately at Ianto.  
  
“If what happened to Lisa had happened to Rose… I can’t imagine having to make that choice.” Jack walked slowly towards Ianto, his steely glare unwavering, “But the choice you made, it was ugly and violent and it cost two people their lives. You made the wrong choice, Ianto. So did Suzy. She paid for it with her life, what are you going pay for it with?”  
  
Ianto breath froze cold within him under Jack's glacial stare. He blinked and stepped backwards, fear creeping slowly up his spine, as Jack continued to walk towards him. "I don't know," he whispered finally. "I can't- how can I make that right? How can anybody make that right? There's nothing-" he stopped, finally accepting the full consequences of his decisions. "There's nothing I can do. Some things can't be fixed."  
  
"Right." His expression still stern, Jack nodded. You made the wrong choice," He repeated, before his tone softened and became quieter. “Because the choices the two of you made, you made by yourself.”  
  
Now only a yard from Ianto, Jack stopped, reaching out to close the gap by placing his hand kindly on Ianto’s shoulder. “If you stay, I promise I won’t let you go through anything like that again alone.”  
  
Glancing at Jack’s warm hand on his shoulder, Ianto frowned again, “You want me to stay?” he asked incredulously, too stripped of everything but hurt and regret to wear his usual mask of composure.  
  
”I don’t want to lose another friend,” Jack said simply, hitting the door release, “I think we’ve both lost too much already. I know Rose wouldn't want me to turn my back on you. So I won't.”  
  
Before Ianto could respond, Jack grinned. “And besides, if you go, who’s going to teach me Welsh?”  
  
Ianto smiled gratefully back at Jack, relief and closure finally beginning to seep into his veins. “Nos da, Jack.”  
  
“Nos da, Ianto.”  
  
Ianto stepped through the flood door, allowing his gaze linger around the vast unearthly space before walking out into the dim-dark light of the tunnels that led to the world above.  
  
This time, he knew his choice would be the right one.

~~~

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to LJ, 7th January 2007. Uploaded to AO3 26th October 2016, with minor edits.


End file.
